In many cutting, spraying and welding operations, plasma arc torches are utilized. With these torches a plasma gas jet is emitted into the ambient atmosphere at a high temperature. The jets are emitted from a nozzle and as they leave the nozzle the jets are highly under-expanded and very focused. However, because of the high temperatures associated with the ionized plasma jet many of the components of the torch are susceptible to failure. This failure can significantly interfere with the operation of the torch and prevent proper arc ignition at the start of a cutting operation. Some torches utilize electrodes having an insert, in addition to a hafnium insert, in an effort to address these problems. An example of this is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,111, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. This patent explains the use of an additional insert within the electrode. However, this solution still does not alleviate the failure issues discussed above.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional, traditional, and proposed approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such approaches with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.